14,000 people a day face losing their health insurance

The Center for American Progress Action Fund and Health Care for
America Now, held a teleconference to release new reports which
stated that health care is the biggest component of our economy and
it is necessary to restore the nation's prosperity. "About 14,000 people lose health insurance everyday, and this is what we can expect as long as the job market remains in crisis," said Judy Feder with the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Director for Health Care for America Now, said that the public shouldn't be scared by the fear-marketing which the insurance industry and drug companies are using to protect their profits. "We're quiet sure that the public will understand that they can't continue to rely on private health insurance's ability to charge them whatever they want and to raise premiums four times as much as wages and that they need the government to be a rule maker and offer them a choice for a public plan as an alternative for private
insurance," Kirsch said.

Dr. Mai Pham, National Physicians Alliance, stated that patients who are
sick don't want to see doctors and can't take their medication and "It
makes no sense to choose such suffering and sickness and expense over
health if we can avoid it,” he concluded.

by Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

AIDS continues to infect public

Carl Schmid, Director of Federal Affairs at the AIDS Institute, stated that over 1.1 million people in the U.S. are currently living with the HIV/AIDS virus. He also remarked that 56,000 new people are found to be infected every year. He added that African Americans and homosexual males are affected at a disproportionately high percentage.

Rebecca Haag, Executive Director of the AIDS Action Council, called it “shameful” that Washington D.C. has higher AIDS rates than some Sub-Saharan African countries.

Haag said it is vital for the U.S. government to “develop a national AIDS strategy.” Haag was surprised that a strategy hasn’t already been formed 25 years into the epidemic.

Haag advocated better sex education. She said that there is no evidence that abstinence-only education has any impact on preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

Christine Lubinski, Executive Director of the HIV Medicine Association, claimed that health care reform is very important to the fight against AIDS. She mentioned that if the health care system works for those with HIV/AIDS, “it will work for everybody.”

U.S. health care could learn a few things from foreign health care systems

Thomas Bjorn Zeltner, Director-General of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, said an important step for U.S. health care reform was to develop "a long term vision, you need a long term consensus on where to go." He added that a long term consensus is something "I don't think you have right now." He said it was important to "plan for 20 years ahead."

At a briefing held by the Alliance of Health Reform, Zeltner also felt that it was important to "reduce the number of uninsured" as well as the "underinsured." He felt that drastic reform can be difficult on a national level, but individual state reforms can be "easier."

While the briefing highlighted the health care systems from Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, Senior Fellow at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago Michael O'Grady said that health care is "not really a foreign policy competition." According to O'Grady, the U.S. should look at the successes and failures of other health care systems, but "some is transferrable, some is not."

Mark McClellan, Director of the Engelberger Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, said that there is "a common growing interest in addressing the quality of care." He felt one sticking point in the minds of citizens was that of "provider payment." He stated that many people in the U.S. want payment based on "value" rather than "fee for service."

Diana Monissen, Director General for Curative Care of the Dutch Ministry of Health, said that the Netherlands had drastic health care reform in 2006. She said that currently in the Netherlands, basic health coverage is required by law. She also stated that risk adjustment for high risk patients. She said that their new universal health care has created "a healthier society." She felt that "sometimes you really need a big step" on health care reform.

Robert Leu, Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Bern, Switzerland, stated that the Swiss health care system is "highly decentralized" and requires "hardly any financing from federal levels." He claimed that all people in Switzerland have "equal access to care" and insurance companies "have to accept anyone."

Reinhard Busse, Professor and Department Head for Health Care Management at the Berlin University of Technology, Germany, {added to the discussion by looking at the aspect of people paying a fixed percentage of their wage towards the social health care system. He added that 85 percent of people in Germany have social health insurance as opposed to only 10 percent who have private health insurance. He added that the social system provides "access to all borrowers." He also said that individual hospitals have to report on their quality of care, so people can "compare hospitals."

The briefing was concluded by Robin Osborn, Vice President and Director of the Commonwealth Fund's International Program in Health Policy and Practice, who said that their survey showed that one third of Americans felt the U.S. health care system "should be completely rebuilt."

McCain campaign quote proves Obama's better on health care?

Obama-Biden Senior Adviser Anita Dunn says that McCain Senior Adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin's admission that the presumed health care plan a person has at has at their job is better than any plan they could
receive with the McCain tax credit, is a "huge October surprise." Dunn said that the McCain campaign "was coming clean" in a teleconference today.

Dunn continued, saying that the Obama campaign's assertions that McCain's health care plan is "inadequate" have been proven "accurate" with Holtz-Eakin's admission. She echoed her surprise at the McCain campaign quote, and said that the Mc Cain campaign has had a "loose relationship with the truth."

Neera Tanden, Obama-Biden Domestic Policy Director, said that 20 million people will lose their employment health care under McCain's plan. She stated that putting people in an individual-based health care was inadequate because "people pay more for less." She added that the statistics and Holtz-Eakin's quote "reinforce that Senator Obama's plan has been right all along." She said that Obama's system is employer-based instead of individual-based like McCain's plan.

Tanden claimed that while Obama's plan is expensive, every cent of the plan is "fully paid for."

Telemedicine to save money for health care and boost the economy

Dr. Robert Litan, author of “Vital Signs via Broadband: Remote Health Monitoring Transmits Savings, Enhances Lives,” stated that “of the thirty companies in the Dow Jones, eighteen of them were started in bare economies.” Litan used this as reason to investigate significant enhancements in health care technologies, even though we’re in a global economic downturn. Tom Ferree of Connected Nation said that forming new companies and commercializing new technologies will help economies get out of recessions, and that new ‘telemonitoring’ remote health care technologies are one way to do it.

Dr. Litan believes the United States could cut $197 billion form its health care bill over the next 25 years though ‘telemonitoring’ a new technology that transmits vital health information and video of people with chronic diseases to remote health care experts. The four main diseases this would target are congestive heart failure, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and chronic skin ulcers (or skin wounds). Dr. Litan said, “especially for seniors, this is better than going to a doctor or a nursing home. Today approximately 17% of home health health care agencies have adopted this technology.”

In order to fulfill these savings for the government, Dr. Litan stated that there must be systematic change in public policy, such as insurance reimbursement policies for doctors through Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Litan said, “we also need policies that deliver broadband, including ‘smart networks’ that ensure that patients’ critical data is secure and that communications are not disrupted.” If this systematic change were to occur, Dr. Litan believes that “remote monitoring can spot health problems sooner, reduce hospitalization, improve life quality and save money.”